Bicycle - the worlds most efficient form of transportationThis page has been very active recently, which is exciting - It is nice to see that people are searching for "the worlds most efficient form of transportation" and other efficiency related queries. Because of the heightened interest, I'm adding to the content of this page. I recently watched two films: An Inconvenient Truth, and Who Killed the Electric Car. It's nice to see these issues going mainstream. If you read the papers (at least here in California's San Francisco Bay Area) you aren't going to see much in these movies that you didn't already know (further evidence of the fact that environmentalism has gone mainstream). I enjoyed the "Inconvenient truth" movie, and I'm glad that it was awarded the Oscar for best documentary. While I felt that Gore's quips about how he was supposed to be the next president were unnecessary, and out of place, I was very please with the simple, positive ending he created. Gore displays a graph of our carbon emissions, and says that we CAN fix the problem. With just a few solutions, we see the projected carbon emission graph go from a slope on Mount Everest to something more like the sides of the Great Basin. The best part about this movie is that Gore suggests solutions, and portrays them in a positive light. Unlike many doomsayer environmentalists, Gore is likely to receive a hearty following.
There are still people who argue that global warming doesn't exist, or that it doesn't exist because of our actions. I'm still willing to admit that the warming we observe is not a result of our actions (but it is obviously occurring). But I ask, what difference does it make? We may not know that carbon dioxide causes global warming... but I think we all know that we'd rather be stuck in traffic behind a Prius than some stinky, smoky guzzler from the mid 70s. Actually, I wouldn't want to be stuck in traffic at all - which is why I prefer to ride a bicycle. The bicycle is the most efficient form of human transport in the world. Energy is often measured in calories, which we are all familiar with. When you look at food labels, the available energy is actually listed in Kilo Calories (that's 1,000 Calories). The available energy in a gallon of gasoline is 31,070 Kilo Calories. The average person consumes between 30 to 50 Kilo Calories per mile traveled on a bicycle (depending on the load and speed). As you might assume, carrying a heavier load or going faster will burn more calories per mile - just like in your car. Anyway, suppose you are cruising to and from work at a 30 KCal / hour pace. At that speed, you could travel 1,035 miles on the energy in a gallon of gasoline. Given that even today's high tech hybrids generally get 55 miles per gallon, you are using 18 times less energy by riding your bike. Moreover, you are saving resources - far fewer materials are needed to make a bicycle. There are a myriad of other advantages to riding a bicycle, but I doubt that trading bikes for cars will ever become mainstream. In America, the bicycle is the most practical way to make 2 to 4 mile trips for a healthy person... but for longer distances, or people who do not have good health, some type of automobile is going to be the only practical way of getting around. Therefore, we really need to take a good look at automobiles. The most recent mainstream look at automobiles came from the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car." I did not like this movie at all. I saw a bunch of EV-1 owners whining about having their cute, leased EV-1 cars taken away. This was sad and wasteful, but no matter how you look at it, the EV-1 is NOT the car for the future of America. How do you do a family vacation in an EV-1? Do you plan for a hotel ever 100 miles? If you are an EV-1 owner and want to take a longer trip, you will have to own another (likely petrol powered) car. Having two cars is... more wasteful than having one car. The problem with Who Killed the Electric Car is that they downplayed all of the other alternatives that people are working on, and they gave hybrids a couple of minutes, barely touching on the fact that a hybrid can effectively become an electric car with an upgrade kit. This system, combined with cleaner burning fuels (such as alcohol fuels). Is an option that is available NOW. It's EASY, uses all the existing infrastructure. Anyone who drives a car can easily drive one of these hybrids instead. Anyway, enough discussion about
automobiles... back to bikes! Below, you will find the original
content of this page.
As you can see from the above images, a bike is much more than a toy. Obviously, most people in North America and other "developed" countries don't truck around large loads on their bicycle every day - so the importance of the type of transport depicted above is rather small. These images are more for shock value - to bring upon the realization that a bicycle is not just a toy - it can actually replace a car! In some countries, these images would have no shock value, as people are frequently seen carrying significantly larger loads on much more rickety bicycles. Even as an avid cyclist, I only use the bicycle to carry large loads a few times a year. That level of use is not making a significant impact on reducing automobile use or emissions. Globally, the carrying large loads is not important, and probably better suited to large vehicles (especially as alternative sources of fuel are developed). What is more important are our day to day activities. For people going to work is probably the number one use of their automobile, and something they do 5 days a week. Therefore, one could have a much more significant impact on reducing automobile use and emissions by riding their bicycle to work every day... but it's not always easy to get motivated. If you are going to go to work on a bicycle, you want the bike to be as enticing (or more enticing) than your car. If the bike seems like too much trouble, you might opt out. Here are my suggestions on how to get the ultimate bike set up.
Here are some advocacy links and other resources to get you started:
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